by on angasfor our present and eternal abiding in him and delight in the fellowship of the divine...

The most basic truth unveiled in the Holy Scriptures, and the foundational elementof the common faith, the faith held by all genuine believers in Christ, concerns the

reality of the one true and living God. God is, and we must believe that He is—that Heis the eternal, self-existing, ever-existing I Am (Heb. 11:6; Exo. 3:6, 14). God is uniquelyone. Nevertheless, this God, the only God, is three-one, triune, and, especially in theNew Testament, He is revealed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt.28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14), all of whom are fully God, are eternal, coexist, and coinhere,dwelling in one another mutually.1 The most profound and mysterious revelation of thisTriune God in the Word of God is found in the Gospel of John, and this revelation isdeveloped and applied in the first Epistle of John, not only for the believers’ enlighten-ment but also for their experience and enjoyment as they seek to live in and accordingto God’s economy for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose to produce and build upthe Body of Christ and ultimately the New Jerusalem for His corporate expression.

The Gospel of John reveals the unique God, the I Am, who is the Father, the Son, andthe Spirit. The Father is the source, the origin and the Originator, the One whose willis the reason for the existence of all created things (5:30; 6:38; Rev. 4:11). No one hasever seen God the Father; however, “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of theFather, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). All that the Father has is the Son’s and is inthe Son (16:15). The Father sent the Son (7:29; 6:57), is expressed in the Son (14:7-11; 8:19), and works in the Son (14:10; 7:16). The Son is the expression of the Father,who is the source. As the One who expresses the Father, the Son replied to Philip’srequest, “Show us the Father” (14:8), with these words: “Have I been so long a timewith you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen theFather” (v. 9). To see the Son, the expression of the Father, is to see the Father, for theSon is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son (v. 10), living a life of coexistence andcoinherence (personally and mutually dwelling in each other). The Son, being equalwith God (5:18) and one with the Father (10:30), is the Word, who is God and whowas with God in the beginning (1:1). The eternal Son had glory with the Father beforethe world was (17:5). At the time appointed by the Father, the Son came to carry outthe will of the Father (4:34; 12:49), having become a man to be the Lamb of God totake away the sin of the world (1:29). The Son died, shedding His blood for redemp-tion and releasing the divine life as living water (19:34; 7:38-39). On the day of His res-urrection the Son in resurrection breathed Himself as the Spirit, the holy breath, intothe disciples (20:22).2 As unveiled in the Gospel of John, the Spirit is the realizationof the Son, who is the expression of the Father. The Spirit is the reality of the Son(14:16-20; 15:26), and He receives all that the Son is and has obtained and discloses itto us (16:14), guiding us into all the reality (v. 13). The Spirit has entered into us, thebelievers, so that we may experience and enjoy the Son and that we may be joined tothe Triune God as one (17:21-23). This profound revelation is developed and appliedin 1 John, for in this Epistle we have the revelation and experience of the Triune God

3Volume XIX � No. 2 � Fall 2014

BY RON KANGAS

for our present and eternal abiding in Him and delight in the fellowship of the divinelife, the fellowship that is “with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1:3).

The Revelation of the Triune God in 1 John

Like the Gospel of John, the Epistle of 1 John, in its nature and character, is divine, mys-terious, and mystical. This Epistle should be studied and appropriated according to itsnature and character, and although it has a pronounced polemical element,3 it should notbe regarded merely as a theological treatise. The Epistle of 1 John is divine because it isa revelation of divine things, conveying deep divine truth and ministering the divine lifethrough the divine fellowship. First John discloses divine things, with which there is nobeginning or ending because whatever is divine is eternal, having neither beginning norending. John’s intention was to impress us with the fact that what he conveyed wasdivine and eternal. The thought in this Epistle is not human but divine; therefore, onlyby divine revelation can we understand the view of the writer. Because 1 John is divinein content, it is also mysterious, speaking of the mystery of life (1:1-2), the mystery offellowship (v. 3), the mystery of abiding (4:13), the mystery of the anointing (2:27), themystery of the divine birth (v. 29), the mystery of the divine seed (3:9), and the mys-tery of the blood, the water, and the Spirit (5:6-8). In 1:1 “John used the expression thatwhich to open his Epistle and unfold the mystery of the fellowship in the divine life. Thathe did not use personal pronouns in reference to the Lord implies that what he was aboutto unfold is mysterious” (Lee, Recovery Version, v. 1, note 1). Furthermore, 1 John ismystical in the sense of having a spiritual meaning and a divine reality that are not appar-ent to the senses nor evident to human reason or intelligence but, without being irra-tional, transcend such functions and faculties. When John wrote this Epistle, he was liv-ing not merely in the natural, human, physical realm but, as a genuine God-man—abeliever in Christ who had been born of God to have the life and nature of God—enjoyingfellowship with the Father and the Son, he was living also in the divine and mys -tical realm of the Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummatedTriune God. If readers of 1 John rely exclusively on their intellectual acumen or previ-ous theological indoctrination, they will be unable to perceive and receive the revelationof the Triune God presented in this divine, mysterious, and mystical book.

The Revelation of the Father

The Father is the source of eternal life, the One of whom believers in Christ are begot-ten to become children of God (1:2; 3:1-2). To know the Father is to recognize andhonor Him as the unique source and origin.4 The life of which the Father is the sourceis the eternal life; this divine, indestructible life is the first and basic attribute of God,the self-existing and ever-existing I Am. This eternal life, being the divine, spirituallife, is not only everlasting but also eternal both in time and in nature. As used to mod-ify the divine life, “eternal denotes not only duration of time, which is everlasting,without end, but also quality, which is absolutely perfect and complete, without anyshortage or defect” (Lee, Recovery Version, 1:2, note 3). The Father has this life in Him -self (John 5:26). For this reason He refers to Himself as “the fountain of living waters”(Jer. 2:13), revealing His longing and intention to be for His people the unique sourceof life, not only for their existence and satisfaction but especially for the fulfillmentof His purpose to have a corporate expression of Himself. God’s eternal purpose is ful-filled not by the created human life but only by the life of the Father, the eternal lifeimparted into those who believe into the Son of God (John 3:15-16), Now, in thislife, the children of God may have fellowship with the Father as the source of life andwith the Son as the embodiment of life (1 John 1:3; 5:11-12).

Intrinsically related to God as life are two other divine attributes emphasized in1 John—light and love. “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1:5). Contrary

to the misguided notion of Gordon H. Clark, the expression God is light is used not in

Affirmation & Critique4

JOHN WAS LIVING

NOT MERELY IN THE

NATURAL, HUMAN,PHYSICAL REALM BUT

AS A GENUINE GOD-MAN—A BELIEVER IN

CHRIST WHO HAD BEEN

BORN OF GOD TO HAVE

THE LIFE AND NATURE

OF GOD—ENJOYING

FELLOWSHIP WITH THE

FATHER AND THE SON.

a metaphoric sense but in a predictive sense to denote and describe an essential aspectof the divine nature.5 Light is the nature of God’s expression. Since God is light, to seeGod is to see light (Matt. 5:8). The Lord Jesus, God manifested in the flesh, declaredconcerning Himself, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Those who believe intothe light—the Son of God as the light of life—become “sons of light” (12:36).

According to the divine revelation in the Word, light and life are inseparable. Wherethere is light, there is life (Gen. 1:3), and where there is life, there is light (John

1:4). “As light is the nature of God in His expression, so darkness is the nature of Satanin his evil works (3:8). Thank God that He has delivered us out of the satanic dark-ness into the divine light (Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). The divine light is the divine life inthe Son operating in us” (Lee, Recovery Version, 1 John 1:5, note 4). A further demon-stration of the relationship between life and light is seen in Psalm 36:9: “With You isthe fountain of life; / In Your light we see light.” First, we experience and enjoy Godas the fountain of life, and then in His light we see light. Regarding seeing light inGod’s light in Psalm 36:9, Watchman Nee speaks with insight:

This tells us that a man can only see real light and realize the true nature of things throughGod’s light. The first occurrence of the word “light” in this verse means the enlighteninglight, and the second occurrence of “light” means the true nature of things. The first“light” refers to the light that comes from God’s enlightening, and the second “light” isthe facts that one sees, that is, the facts that are revealed under God’s enlightening. Abeliever must live in God’s light before he can have sight. Only those who live in God’slight will see light, and only those who live in His light can discern the true nature ofthings…Once we realize that God is light, we will live in His light. (898-899)

First John also places great emphasis on the divine attribute of love. “God is love” (4:8). “Hislove is perfected in us” (v. 12). “We know and have believed the love which God has in us.God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him” (v. 16). “Welove because He first loved us” (v. 19). Love is the inner substance of God, His divineessence; in His essential being, God is love. Love is His nature, and according to Hisnature of love, He loves. Like light, the divine love is intrinsically related to the divine life.“In this life are all His riches, / All His nature, love and light” (Hymns, #602). God is richin mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead inoffenses and sins and walking “according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of thespirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:1-2, 4). Because Godis love, the kindness and love to humankind of our Savior God has appeared (Titus 3:4).

In his first Epistle, as in his Gospel, the apostle John conjoins the love of God with Hisgiving His Son so that, in Him, we may have eternal life (John 3:15-16). In John’s words,“We have beheld and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world”(1 John 4:14). Love as the inner substance, the essence, of the Father was the motive forsending His Son. “In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent Hisonly begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him. Hereinis love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propiti-ation for our sins…God has loved us in this way” (vv. 9-11). In what way did the Fathersend the Son? It certainly was not in the heretical, tritheistic manner of sending the Sonapart from Himself while, He, the Father, remained in heaven, separate from the Son,whom He sent into the world. The Father sent the Son by coming not only with theSon but also in the Son. Shortly before He was arrested, tried, and crucified, Christ theSon said to His disciples, “Behold, an hour is coming, and has come, that you will be scat-tered each to his own place and will leave Me alone; yet I am not alone, because theFather is with Me” (John 16:32). This echoes His word in 8:16: “I am not alone, but I andthe Father who sent Me.” The Father and the Son are one (10:30) and cannot be sepa-rated; therefore, when the Son was on earth, the Father was with Him. The Father’sbeing with the Son, whom He had sent into the world, was not an outward, external


THE FATHER AND THE

SON ARE ONE AND

CANNOT BE SEPARATED.WHEN THE SON WAS

ON EARTH, THE FATHER

WAS WITH HIM. THE

FATHER WAS IN THE

SON AND WAS WITH

THE INCARNATED

SON IN THE WAY

OF COINHERENCE,MUTUAL INDWELLING.

matter of causing the Son to have a sense of His presence; on the contrary, the Fatherwas in the Son and was with the incarnated Son in the way of coinherence, mutualindwelling. Let us attend to the Son’s word regarding this: “Do you not believe that I amin the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak fromMyself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in theFather and the Father is in Me” (14:10-11). Elsewhere the Son said, “Believe the worksso that you may come to know and continue to know that the Father is in Me and I amin the Father” (10:38). The Father sent the Son by being with the Son and in the Son.

First John 4:9-11 discloses the Father’s twofold purpose in loving us and sending HisSon—propitiation and impartation. In verse 10 we see that God’s love was manifestedin sending His Son “as a propitiation for our sins,” providing Jesus Christ Himself as thepropitiation for our sins (2:2). Christ made “propitiation for the sins of the people”(Heb. 2:17) by offering Himself to God as the sacrifice of propitiation. The meaning ofpropitiation is to appease the situation between us and God and to reconcile us to Godby satisfying God’s righteous requirements. Propitiation solves the problem between usand God, the problem of our sins, which kept us away from God and hindered Godfrom coming to us. Propitiation involves two parties, one of which has wronged theother, has become indebted to the other, and must act to satisfy the demands of theother. Because the two parties have been separated, there is the need of propitiation.As sinners, whose situation is illustrated by the tax collector in Luke 18:13, we neededpropitiation to appease our situation with God and to satisfy His demands.

In His unfathomable love for us, God sent His Son to die on our behalf as the sacrifice ofpropitiation. Christ is the sacrifice of propitiation for our sins, offering Himself not onlyfor our redemption but also for satisfying and fulfilling God’s demands. On the crossChrist propitiated for us and brought us back to God, reconciling us to God and makingus one with Him in such a way that God the Father can now be peacefully gracious to us.

Although propitiation is indescribably precious, it was not actually the goal of theFather’s sending His only begotten Son into the world. In order to be impressed

with the Father’s goal, let us consider 1 John 4:9 again: “In this the love of God wasmanifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that wemight have life and live through Him.” The Father’s desire is not to populate heavenwith a multitude of redeemed, justified, reconciled, and forgiven sinners who arerestored to a pre-fallen condition. God’s intention in sending His Son as a propitiationfor our sins was that, being reconciled to God and at peace with Him in Christ, we mayhave life—the eternal, uncreated, indestructible life of God—and live this life throughChrist for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose to have a corporate expression ofHimself in His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people, who will share His life andnature for His glory. The following note bears careful consideration and study:

We, the fallen people, are not only sinful in nature and conduct (Rom. 7:17-18; 1:28-32)but also dead in our spirit (Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13). God sent His Son into the world notonly to be a propitiation for our sins that we might be forgiven (v. 10) but also to be lifeto us that we might have life and live through Him. In the love of God, the Son of Godsaves us not only from our sins by His blood (Eph. 1:7; Rev. 1:5) but also from our deathby His life (3:14-15; John 5:24). He is not only the Lamb of God who takes away our sin(John 1:29); He is also the Son of God who gives us eternal life (John 3:36). He died forour sins (1 Cor. 15:3) that we might have eternal life in Him (John 3:14-16) and livethrough Him (John 6:57; 14:19). In this the love of God, which is God’s essence, hasbeen manifested. (Lee, Recovery Version, 1 John 4:9, note 3)

In 1 John 3:1 we find a further expression of the Father’s love: “Behold what manner oflove the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and we are.”We truly are children of God because we have been begotten of God, born of God, to


GOD’S INTENTION IN

SENDING HIS SON AS A

PROPITIATION FOR OUR

SINS WAS THAT, BEING

RECONCILED TO GOD

AND AT PEACE WITH

HIM IN CHRIST, WE

MAY HAVE LIFE—THE

ETERNAL, UNCREATED,INDESTRUCTIBLE LIFE OF

GOD—AND LIVE THIS

LIFE THROUGH CHRIST.

actually have the life of God, the eternal life. “This is the promise which He Himselfpromised us, the eternal life” (2:25). “God gave to us eternal life and this life is in HisSon. He who has the Son has the life,” and now we may know that we have eternal life(5:11-13). Regarding this, we must pierce through the fog of the doctrinal error whichinsists that redeemed persons have merely been adopted by God or simply re-created byHim in their natural human life but are not begotten of God.6 The divine truth, asserteduncompromisingly by John in his first Epistle, is that the believers in Christ have beenborn of God, begotten of the Father, and thus possess the Father’s life, the eternal life(2:29; 3:9; 5:4, 18). We have been begotten of God and know God (4:7). “Everyone whobelieves that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and everyone who loves Himwho has begotten loves him also who has been begotten of Him” (5:1). Oh, what lovethat the Father sent the Son as a propitiation for our sins and that we might have life andlive in Him! What love that we should be called children of God, begotten of God topossess the life of God! And we, the blessed believers in Christ, are the children of God!

In 1 John we have a revelation of God the Father not only as life, light, and love butalso as “Him who is true” (5:20), the true One. Literally, the Greek word is “the

True,” denoting the divine truth, the divine reality, itself. After referring the secondtime to “Him who is true,” John speaks of “His Son Jesus Christ,” and in so doing, heindicates that “Him who is true”—“the true One,” “the True”—is God the FatherHimself. The Father is the True, the divine reality. To be sure, this reality is notrestricted to the Father but is equally a property of the Son and the Spirit. When theWord, the eternal Son of God, became flesh and tabernacled among us, He was fullof reality, for reality came with Him through incarnation (John 1:14, 17). Testifyingfaithfully regarding Himself, the Son declared, “I am…the reality” (14:6). The Spirit isthe Spirit of reality who guides the believers into all the reality (16:13). Later, we willconsider the amazing statement in 1 John 5:6: “The Spirit is the reality.” This true One,the Triune God as the divine reality, is versus idols, and John concludes this Epistle witha charge concerning them: “Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (5:21). An idolis anything that replaces the true God in human hearts and lives and, in this Epistle,especially the heretical substitutes for the true God, for the true One.7

The Revelation of the Son

Both in the Godhead and in the divine economy, the Father and the Son, although eter-nally distinct, are inseparable. The Son is with the Father, the Father is in the Son andthe Son is in the Father, and the Son is the expression of the Father. An antichrist is“one who denies the Father and the Son” (2:22). “Everyone who denies the Son doesnot have the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also” (v. 23). TheFather and the Son are one (John 10:30); hence, denying the Son equals being withoutthe Father, and confessing the Son is to have the Father. With this in mind, let us con-sider, in an initial and introductory way, the revelation of the Son in 1 John.

According to John’s understanding, believers who can be called “fathers”—those whoare mature in the divine life—“know Him who is from the beginning” (2:13-14). ThisOne from the beginning is the eternal, preexisting Son, who is the Word that is God.The deity of the Son, who is revealed in the Gospel of John as I Am, is eternal andabsolute; He is the self-existing, ever-existing God, co-equal in the Godhead with theFather. The apostle John opens his first Epistle with a marvelous and mysteriousunveiling of the eternal, preexisting Son of God: “That which was from the beginning,which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and ourhands handled, concerning the Word of life” (1:1). Instead of referring to a specificdivine title of the Lord or using some kind of personal designation, John speaks of “thatwhich was from the beginning” to indicate (we may reasonably believe) that the sub-ject and content of his Epistle is mysterious. This One from the beginning is “the Wordof life,” the Word in John 1:1 and 14, who was with God and was God in eternity and,


IN THE GODHEAD

AND IN THE DIVINE

ECONOMY, THE FATHER

AND THE SON,ALTHOUGH

ETERNALLY DISTINCT,ARE INSEPARABLE.HENCE, DENYING THE

SON EQUALS BEING

WITHOUT THE FATHER,AND CONFESSING

THE SON IS TO

HAVE THE FATHER.

through incarnation, became flesh in time. “This Word is the divine person of Christas an account, a definition, and an expression of all that God is. In Him is life, and Heis life” (Lee, Recovery Version, 1 John 1:1, note 5). “That which was from the begin-ning,” that is, “the Word of life,” was incarnated and was tangible and could be physi-cally substantiated; this is proved by “which we [the apostles] have heard, which wehave seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands handled.” Jesus Christ isJehovah God incarnated to become a human being, the God-man, the Nazarene.

In verse 2, a parenthesis, John employs other synonyms for this One: “(And the lifewas manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which

was with the Father and was manifested to us).” From this we can readily perceive thatthat which was from the beginning, the Word of life, the life, and the eternal life all referto the same person—the incarnated Son of God.8 Life in verse 2 is synonymous withthe Word of life in verse 1, for both denote the eternal, preexisting Son of God whobecame a human being through incarnation, the One who declared, “I am…the life”(John 11:25; 14:6). This life, this Word of life, is “the eternal life,” which is the life ofGod, the indestructible life, not (as often supposed) unending existence in heaven.Eternal life is not a thing, it is not an element, and it is not everlastingness; eternal life isa person—the Son of God, the Word who became flesh and in whom is life (1:1, 4, 14).

The human name of the incarnated Word, the Son of God, is Jesus, and genuine believ-ers must confess that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is the Christ, and that JesusChrist has come in the flesh (1 John 2:22; 4:2, 15). Jesus Christ is the God-man who wascrucified for our redemption, shedding His blood to satisfy the requirements of God’srighteousness, holiness, and glory, to release us from our sins and to enable God toimpart, and us to receive, the eternal life embodied in Him. Thus, in 1:7 John speaksof “the blood of Jesus His Son.” It is helpful to study this verse in light of Acts 20:28,which speaks of “the church of God, which He [God] obtained through with His ownblood.” The Greek word translated “obtained” also means “acquired” or “purchased.” Godobtained, acquired, the church by paying the price of His own blood. Through incarnationour God, the Creator, the eternal One, became mingled with man, and as a result, Hewas no longer only God but a God-man. This God-man had blood and was able to diefor us. When the God-man died on the cross, He died not only as a man but also as God.

The blood that has redeemed fallen human beings and cleansed us from every sin is theblood of Jesus, the Son of God. As fallen human beings, we needed genuine human bloodfor our redemption, and as a man, the Lord Jesus shed human blood to redeem us. TheLord Jesus is also the Son of God, even God Himself; thus, with His blood there is theelement of divinity, and the divine element ensures the eternal efficacy of His blood. Asa man, He had genuine human blood, and as God, He has the element that gives Hisblood eternal efficacy. Now the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.

The name Jesus denotes the Lord’s humanity, which is needed for the shedding of theredeeming blood, and the title His Son denotes the Lord’s divinity, which is needed forthe eternal efficacy of the redeeming blood. Thus, the blood of Jesus His Son indicates thatthis blood is the proper blood of a genuine man shed for the redeeming of God’s fallencreatures, with the divine surety as its eternal efficacy, an efficacy that is all-prevailing inspace and everlasting in time. (Lee, Recovery Version, 1 John 1:7, note 4)

The blood shed by the Lord Jesus, the God-man, on the cross is eternal blood; therefore,the redemption accomplished by Jesus, God’s Son, is eternal (Heb. 9:14). With thesetruths, we can understand that, in a very real sense, the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, iswhat Paul refers to as God’s own blood, through which God obtained the church. Thisis the profound thought embedded in the words the blood of Jesus His Son (1 John 1:7).

We have seen that the Lord Jesus, having been sent by the Father for our redemption,


AS A MAN, THE LORD

JESUS SHED HUMAN

BLOOD TO REDEEM

US. THE LORD JESUS

IS ALSO THE SON

OF GOD, EVEN GOD

HIMSELF; THUS, WITH

HIS BLOOD THERE

IS THE ELEMENT OF

DIVINITY THAT ENSURES

THE ETERNAL EFFICACY

OF HIS BLOOD.

“Himself is the propitiation for our sins” (2:2). This One is now our Advocate. “My lit-tle children, these things I write to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, wehave an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous” (v. 1). If we say thatwe have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1:8), and if wesay that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us (v. 10). Eventhough believers have the divine seed in their regenerated human spirit (3:9) and maynot sin habitually, they still commit sins occasionally. John wrote with the intention thathis readers would not sin but nevertheless realized that, in actuality, they might sin.When believers sin, they should confess their sin with the assurance that God theFather is faithful and righteous to forgive their sin and cleanse them from all unright-eousness (1:9). Because believers’ sins are a relational and familial matter, involving theFather and His children, they need the One whose blood cleanses them to minister in Hisascension as their Advocate with the Father. Concerning Advocate, Witness Lee writes,

The Greek word refers to one who is called to another’s side to aid him; hence, a helper.It refers also to one who offers legal aid or one who intercedes on behalf of someone else;hence, an advocate, counsel, or intercessor. The word carries the sense of consoling andconsolation; hence, a consoler, a comforter. It is used in the Gospel of John (14:16, 26;15:26; 16:7) for the Spirit of reality as our Comforter within us, the One who takes careof our case or our affairs…It is used here in reference to the Lord Jesus as our Advocatewith the Father. When we sin, He, based on the propitiation that He accomplished, takescare of our case by interceding (Rom. 8:34) and pleading for us. (Lee, Recovery Version,1 John 2:1, note 5)

We need to be impressed with the fact that our Advocate is Jesus Christ the Righteous.God the Father is righteous, and the Lord Jesus, the God-man, is also righteous. “Hewas manifested that He might take away sins, and sin is not in Him” (3:5). As the onlytruly righteous person who ever lived, He, the righteous One (Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14),died on behalf of the unrighteous (1 Pet. 3:18), fulfilling the righteous requirementsof the law so that, righteously, God would have the ground to forgive us of our sins.

The Son of God was manifested not only to deal with sin but also to nullify, to bring tonaught, the evil works of God’s enemy. “For this purpose the Son of God was mani-fested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). On the cross the LordJesus took away the sin of the world, and, as revealed through Paul, through His deathHe destroyed “him who has the might of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). The LordJesus had this glorious victory in view when shortly before His crucifixion He declared, “Nowis the judgment of this world; now shall the ruler of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). Allthat the enemy has planned and accomplished in rebelling against God, establishinghis own kingdom, and injecting his elements of sin and death into humankindhas been undone, nullified, reduced to nothing, through the manifestation of the Sonof God. All believers in Christ need to be enlightened to see this glorious fact.

First John 1:1-2 reveals that the Son is the Word of life, the life, and the eternal life,and this supports, develops, and applies the truth unveiled in the Gospel of John that

in Him is life, that He is life, and that He came that we may have life. What is presentedin the first verses of 1 John is reflected in 5:11-12: “This is the testimony, that God gaveto us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who doesnot have the Son of God does not have the life.” God gave His only begotten Son by send-ing Him in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin so that everyone who believesinto the Son would have eternal life (John 3:15-16; Rom. 8:3). To repeat, eternal life inJohn 3:15-16 denotes the life of God, the uncreated, divine life, not everlasting life in afuture heaven. First John 5:11 says that God gave to us eternal life, and in verse 13 theapostle John says, “I have written these things to you that you may know that you haveeternal life, to you who believe into the name of the Son of God.” Eternal life, given infulfillment of the Father’s promise, is not something that we should simply hope that we


ALL THAT THE ENEMY

HAS ACCOMPLISHED IN

REBELLING AGAINST

GOD, ESTABLISHING

HIS OWN KINGDOM,AND INJECTING HIS

ELEMENTS OF SIN

AND DEATH INTO

HUMAN KIND HAS BEEN

NULLIFIED THROUGH

THE MANIFESTATION

OF THE SON OF GOD.

have or believe that we have, but a divine provision that we know that we have. God hasgiven to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. If we are clear regarding this, we willno longer separate eternal life from the Son in whom this life is. God has no intention ofgiving us things, not even eternal life as a thing or an element. Whatever the Father givesto us, He gives in the Son, and we must learn to cease asking the Father for things, suchas love or power, apart from the Son. The eternal life that God gives is in the Son; thus,the unique way to have eternal life is to have the Son, who actually is the life itself, asfully revealed in 1:1-2 and throughout this Epistle and the entire Gospel of John. Becauseeternal life is in the Son and even is the Son, we have eternal life only by having theSon: “He who has the Son has the life” (5:12). Those who know that they have the Sonthrough receiving Him by faith may also know that they have eternal life. Having theSon is our assurance that we have the eternal life, which is given in the Son.

The Revelation of the Spirit

In 1 John the Spirit is explicitly mentioned in 3:24; 4:2, 6, 13; 5:6 and 8.9 In this we knowthat He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us” (3:24). As we will see when weconsider the experience of the Triune God in 1 John, a central thought in this Epistle, amarvelous development of the unveiling of Christ the Son as the true vine with thebelievers as branches abiding in the vine, is the reality of our abiding in the Triune Godand the Triune God abiding in us. Christ is in us (Col. 1:27); this is a deeply subjectivematter, for it involves Christ as the life-giving Spirit joined to and mingled with theregenerated human spirit to be one spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 6:17). The spirit is where Heabides in us, but how do we know this and not merely believe it? It is by the Spirit that weknow with full assurance that the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit is actually dwellingin us. This subjective reality requires a subjective knowing, and this knowing is basedupon the Triune God becoming the subjective God to us and in us, strengthening us withpower into our inner man and making His home deep down in our hearts (Eph. 3:16-17).

First John 4:13-14 should be studied along with 3:24. In 4:13 John speaks not onlyof the Triune God’s abiding in us but also of our abiding in Him. “In this we know

that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit. And wehave beheld and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world”(vv. 13-14) This word about abiding is a development of the Lord’s direct word in John15:4: “Abide in Me and I in you.” Through death and in resurrection the Lord Jesus hasprepared an abode, a place (14:2-3), for us in the Father (v. 20) and in the Father’shouse, the church of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15-16). In John 15 the Lord Jesus, refer-ring to the same corporate reality and mutual dwelling place, speaks not of the Father’shouse but of His, the Son’s, vine, charging us to abide in the vine. To abide in the vineis to dwell in our abode in the Father’s house. God wants us to know this. How maywe know that we are abiding in the Triune God and that the Triune God is abiding inus? We know that we abide in Him and that He abides in us through the divine factthat the Father has given to us of His Spirit, and the Spirit witnesses with our spirit(Rom. 8:16) and teaches us to abide in the Triune God (1 John 2:27).

In 1 John 4:2-3 we have another kind of knowing: “In this you know the Spirit of God:Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and everyspirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist.”We know the Spirit of God because the Spirit of God, by which the Lord was conceivedin the womb of a human virgin (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35), will never deny that JesusChrist, the Son of the living God, has come in the flesh. In 1 John 4:2 the word flesh isof vital significance. The Word, who is God Himself, became flesh. God sent His Sonin the likeness of the flesh of sin; that is, the Son became flesh but did not have sin inthe flesh. We should not say that Christ came in the likeness of the flesh; this is to denythe reality of the incarnation. Rather, we should say that Christ came in the likenessof the flesh of sin; this is to assert the truth of the incarnation while maintaining the


WE KNOW THAT

WE ABIDE IN HIM

AND THAT HE ABIDES

IN US THROUGH

THE DIVINE FACT

THAT THE FATHER HAS

GIVEN TO US OF HIS

SPIRIT, AND THE SPIRIT

WITNESSES WITH OUR

SPIRIT AND TEACHES

US TO ABIDE IN

THE TRIUNE GOD.

testimony that the incarnated Son of God, the God-man, became a human being, yetwithout sin in the flesh. The Spirit of God will “confess Jesus” (v. 2), declaring thatJesus Christ has come in the flesh. John’s word and the function of the Spirit of Godin confessing Jesus are a powerful antidote to the heresy, rampant today as it was in thefirst century, that denies the incarnation of the Son of God. In union with the confess-ing Spirit, all believers openly testify, “Jesus is the Son of God” (v. 15).

In 4:6 and 5:6 the Spirit of God is related to the truth. In 4:1 the apostle exhorts us to“not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God.” The Spirit of

God always confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. “From this we know theSpirit of truth and the spirit of deception” (v. 6). The Spirit of truth—this is a preciousdesignation of the Spirit, who guides us into all the reality, especially the reality of all thatthe Son is as the embodiment and expression of the Father (John 16:13-15). If we “provethe spirits whether they are of God,” we will discern between the Spirit of truth—theSpirit of God testifying that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has become a man throughincarnation—and the spirit of deception—the evil spirit of antichrist, which denies theincarnation, human living, redemptive death, and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

On the one hand, the Spirit of God testifies concerning the Lord’s humanity, that He,the Son of God, has come in the flesh to be a real and physical human being, not amere phantom as the Docetists and the Gnostics heretically assert. On the other hand,the Spirit of God testifies concerning the Lord’s divinity, that He is the Son of God.The Spirit joins with the water and the blood to testify that Jesus is the Son of God(1 John 5:6). “There are three who testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, andthe three are unto the one thing” (vv. 7-8). This “one thing” is “the testimony of God,”the testimony that God has “testified concerning His Son” (vv. 9-10). The water refersto the baptism of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 3:16-17). The first manifestation of Jesus as theSon of God was His baptism by John, at which time a voice out of heaven said, “Thisis My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight” (v. 17), and John the Baptisttestified that Jesus is the Son of God (John 1:32, 34). The blood refers to the bloodthat the Lord Jesus shed on the cross for our redemption (Matt. 27:51-53). This shed-ding of blood (John 19:34) was witnessed by the centurion and those guarding Jesus,who “when they saw the earthquake and the things that happened, became greatlyfrightened, saying, Truly this was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54). The Spirit of truthalso testifies that Jesus is the Son of God (1 John 4:2; 5:6, 8; John 14:16-17; 15:26).The Spirit bears such a testimony because “the Spirit is the reality” (1 John 5:6). Not onlyis the Spirit of God the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of reality who guides us into thereality; the Spirit is the reality itself. The Spirit is the reality of all that Christ, the Sonof God, is and has as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God.

The Experience of the Triune God in 1 John

The believers’ experience of the Triune God as presented in this Epistle is particularand detailed, including matters such as walking in God as light and obeying the teach-ing of the anointing to abide in the Lord. If we would have a proper understanding ofwhat John unveils regarding spiritual experience in the fellowship of the divine life, weneed to realize, or be reminded, that the three of the Divine Trinity, although distinct,are inseparable both in the Godhead and in our experience according to God’s econ-omy. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist and coinhere mutually, and Theyalways work together as one in fulfilling God’s purpose and in supplying and buildingup the believers. This means that in our experience the whole Triune God is presentand active. For example, if we are experiencing Christ as life (Col. 3:4; 1 John 5:11-12),we are experiencing not only Christ the Son, who is life (John 11:25; 14:6), but alsothe Father as the source of life (5:18) and the Spirit as the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2).For the sake of keeping this article to a manageable length, we will consider a limitednumber of experiential matters in a brief, introductory way.


THE SPIRIT OF GOD,THE SPIRIT OF REALITY

WHO GUIDES US INTO

THE REALITY, IS THE

REALITY ITSELF. THE

SPIRIT IS THE REALITY

OF ALL THAT CHRIST,THE SON OF GOD, ISAND HAS AS THE

EMBODIMENT AND

EXPRESSION OF THE

TRIUNE GOD.

Believing into the Son of God

The Christian life and experience begin with believing into the Son of God.10

“Everyone who believes into Him [the Son] may have eternal life” (John 3:15). “Hewho believes into the Son has eternal life” (v. 36). “These have been written that youmay believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may havelife in His name” (20:31). “This is His commandment that we believe in the name ofHis Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23). “He who believes into the Son of God has the tes-timony in himself” (5:10). “I have written these things to you that you may know thatyou have eternal life, to you who believe into the name of the Son of God” (v. 13). Cer -tainly, we “believe that” and we “believe in”; however, John’s emphasis both in hisGospel and in his first Epistle is that we “believe into.” We believe into the Son ofGod—we believe into Him in such a way that, in spirit, we enter into an organicunion with Him to be one with Him. This union is the experiential foundation ofthe Chris tian life personally and the proper church life corporately. Only by being inChrist through believing into the Son of God can we live as children of God (3:1-2).

The action of believing into the Son of God is not an exercise of any kind of humanability or strength, which has been poisoned and deadened through indwelling sin.

We need to be convinced that believing in the Son of God is not a human possibility.The Lord Himself is the Author, the Originator, of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Only by turn-ing to Him and opening to Him to receive an infusion of faith as the believing elementcan we truly believe in and into Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and by believing we mayhave life, eternal life, in His name. This believing is an actual human experience as indi-cated by the record in the book of Acts. In response to the gospel, those who receivedrepentance unto eternal life believed; they were not passive but responded to the wordof God by believing. “They believed Philip, who announced the gospel of the kingdomof God and of the name of Jesus Christ” (8:12). The Ethiopian, reacting to Philip’sword, said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (v. 37). “In this One every-one who believes is justified” (13:39). “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall besaved” (16:31). All those who receive the Lord as the true light, the light of life shiningin the darkness, are those who “believe into His name” (John 1:12). Believing into a per-son, the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended God-man, Jesus Christ, is thebeginning of the experience of the Triune God to which John bears faithful witness.

Begotten of God

Those who believe into the Son of God are begotten of God, born of God, regener-ated of the Spirit of God, to become children of God possessing the life and natureof God.11 John, in emphasizing the divine birth, repeatedly uses the word begot -ten. “Everyone who practices righteousness also has been begotten of Him” (1 John2:29). “Everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin, because Hisseed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God” (3:9).Since God is love (4:8), John says, “Everyone who loves has been begotten of Godand knows God” (v. 7). From this it follows that “everyone who loves Him who hasbegotten loves him also who has been begotten of Him” (5:1). Referring to the regen-erated human spirit, John remarks, “Everything that has been begotten of God over-comes the world” (v. 4). This leads John to say, “We know that everyone who is begot-ten of God does not sin, but he who has been begotten of God keeps himself, and theevil one does not touch him” (v. 18). God the Father has begotten, generated, pro-duced, what can only be called a new, divine-human species—children of God withthe life of God. This divine begetting is not a metaphor, and it does not refer to adop-tion apart from the impartation of the divine, eternal life into created, fallen,redeemed, and believing human beings. There surely is no miracle greater than this.

John’s writings on the mysteries of the eternal divine life stress very much the divine birth


BELIEVING INTO

THE INCARNATED,CRUCIFIED,

RESURRECTED,AND ASCENDED

GOD-MAN, JESUS

CHRIST, IS THE

BEGINNING OF

THE EXPERIENCE

OF THE TRIUNE GOD

TO WHICH JOHN BEARS

FAITHFUL WITNESS.

(3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18; John 1:12-13), which is our regeneration (John 3:3, 5). It is the great-est wonder in the entire universe that human beings could be begotten of God and sin-ners could be made children of God! Through such an amazing divine birth we havereceived the divine life, which is the eternal life (1:2), as the divine seed sown into ourbeing (3:9). Out of this seed all the riches of the divine life grow from within us. (Lee,Recovery Version, 1 John 2:29, note 7)

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God” (5:1). Thisdivine begetting, issuing in the producing of children of God (as opposed to mere crea-tures or redeemed sinners), is necessary for two reasons. The first, and lesser, reason isthat we need to be regenerated because our created human life has been corruptedthrough the fall, having become sinful and evil, and cannot be changed or improved (Jer.17:9; Rom. 7:18). Because of this deplorable condition we need to be regenerated andreceive another life. This is often the main reason, even the only reason, theologians giveto explain the need for regeneration. However, there is a second reason, and it may comeas a surprise to many readers. The second, greater, and primary reason is that we needto be regenerated simply because, as human beings with a human life, we do not havethe divine life, the eternal life of God. There is no such thing as a “divine spark” as anelement in the original God-created human nature. When we were created by God, weobtained only a created human life, not the uncreated life of the Triune God as empha-sized by John in his first Epistle. Since God’s intention in His creation of humankind wasthat created beings would receive eternal life and fulfill His purpose by growing tomatur ity in this life, we would have needed regeneration—rebirth in the spirit with thedivine life—even if we had not sinned and even if our created human life had not becomecorrupt and evil. Therefore, regeneration is necessary primarily because it is the means bywhich we obtain the eternal life for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. This matterneeds to become crystal clear to all believers in Christ: Even if we had not sinned and hadnot become evil and corrupt, and even if we did not require the renewal, or re-creation,of our natural human life, we would nevertheless have needed to be regenerated, begot-ten of God, simply because, as humans created by God, we did not have the life of God.

To be regenerated is to receive another life—the divine, eternal, uncreated, inde-structible life of God—in addition to our original created human life (John 3:3-6, 15-16;

20:31). We can have the life of God only by being begotten of God, born of God theSpirit in our spirit. If we see this and thereby understand what regeneration is, we willrealize that we need to be regenerated, born of God, not mainly because we are sinfulbut mainly because we do not have God’s life. The goal of regeneration, therefore, is notprimarily to deal with our fallen life and nature but primarily to bring the life and natureof God into us so that we may become actual, begotten children of God. When theSpirit of God imparts the life of God into the spirit of a believing person, that one isimmediately born of God to become a child of God. This is the meaning of regeneration,of being begotten of God, according to the divinely inspired writings of the apostle John.

Fellowship with the Triune God

Based upon the fact that those who have believed into the Son of God have been bornof God to have the life and nature of God and to become children of God, they mayexperience and enjoy the supreme delight of fellowship with God. In fact, the fellow-ship of the divine life is the subject of 1 John. “That which we have seen and heard,”John says to his readers, “we report also to you that you also may have fellowship withus, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1:3).At the beginning of the church life, as recorded in Acts, all the believers continued stead-fastly in the fellowship of the apostles (2:42). This fellowship is the communion andmutual participation in the divine life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Such fellow-ship and participation enabled the believers to have not only the oneness of the Spirit(Eph. 4:3) but also the genuine one accord (Acts 1:14; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12; 15:25), which is


EVEN IF WE HAD

NOT SINNED AND

HAD NOT BECOME EVIL

AND CORRUPT, WE

WOULD NEVERTHELESS

HAVE NEEDED TO

BE REGENERATED,BEGOTTEN OF GOD,SIMPLY BECAUSE,AS HUMANS CREATED

BY GOD, WE DID NOT

HAVE THE LIFE OF GOD.

the application of the oneness of the Spirit to all of our inward parts as human beings—mind, emotion, and will—in order to live and serve “in one spirit, with one soul” (Phil.1:27). Those who enter into this fellowship, the apostles’ fellowship with the Father andthe Son (including the Spirit by implication) (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1), gladly abandonprivate interests and personal goals and become one with the Triune God and the apos-tles in the fellowship of the divine life to fulfill the purpose for which they have beencreated, redeemed, regenerated, and brought into the organic Body of Christ.

As experience testifies, the essence of the fellowship of the divine life is the flowof the divine life in the Body of Christ. This flow is illustrated by the circulation

of blood in the human body with the continual supply of life to the members. In thebook of Revelation this flow of the divine life is signified by the river of water of lifeproceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb at the center of the NewJerusalem, the wife of the redeeming God (21:9-10; 22:1-2). The river of water of liferefers to the Spirit of life, and in this river grows the tree of life as the eternal life sup-ply to the glorified and built-up sons of God, who compose the New Jerusalem, a uni-versal corporate God-man. To live in the fellowship of the divine life requires that welearn of God to maintain an uninterrupted flow of life within us. As this life flowsamong us, we, with the apostles, have fellowship with the Triune God.

In 1 John 1:6-7 we have a crucial condition for living in the fellowship of life: “If we saythat we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not prac-ticing the truth; but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship withone another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.” To be in thedarkness is to be in self-deception and death, living without the truth and the word ofGod operating in us. Light is the nature of God’s expression, for the God with whom wemay have fellowship is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (v. 5). “What fellowshipdoes light have with darkness?” Paul asks the Corinthians (2 Cor. 6:14). Light, which isof God, and darkness, which is of Satan, are incompatible, and fellowship betweenthem is impossible. Once we were darkness, but now we are light in the Lord, sons oflight through regeneration (Eph. 5:8; John 12:36), so, in the words of Paul in the versecited from Ephesians, we should “walk as children of light.” Children of light—childrenof God with the life and nature of God—must walk in the light as God is in the light inorder to have fellowship with the Triune God and one another. To walk in the light is tolive in the light, with our whole being open to the constant shining of the light of life (John8:12). Only in this light can we experience and enjoy the fellowship of the divine life.

While we are having fellowship by walking in the light, various aspects of our fallen,sinful condition will be exposed spontaneously. However, there is no need for despair,discouragement, or self-condemnation, because the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, contin-ually cleanses us from every sin. Furthermore, we may experience God’s forgivenessand cleansing: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us oursins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God the Father, who is life,light, and love, is also faithful to His word and righteousness according to His nature toforgive and to cleanse us. God must always be righteous, for the throne of His admin-istration is established upon righteousness (Psa. 89:14), and the righteousness of Godmanifested in the gospel of God is the power of God unto salvation to everyone whobelieves (Rom. 1:16-17). In the divine fellowship, the flowing of the divine life, weknow and experience our God in His faithfulness and righteousness as we come to real-ize that the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.

In Him Who Is True and in His Son Jesus Christ

“We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that wemight know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). The words know and in point to an


IN THE DIVINE

FELLOWSHIP, THE

FLOWING OF THE

DIVINE LIFE, WE KNOW

AND EXPERIENCE

OUR GOD IN HIS

FAITHFULNESS AND

RIGHTEOUSNESS AS WE

COME TO REALIZE THAT

THE BLOOD OF JESUS

HIS SON CLEANSES

US FROM EVERY SIN.

experience in which the God who is true and real in Himself becomes the true Godand the eternal life to the believers subjectively.12 Through His incarnation, crucifixion,and resurrection, the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding so thatwe might know God as the One who is true. This understanding is the faculty of theenlightened mind of a believer empowered by the Spirit of reality to know the divinereality. As noted earlier, the Greek word translated “Him who is true” may be renderedas “the true One” or even simply as “the True,” with the word True conveying the mean-ing of “genuine” or “real.” Only the Triune God is true, real; everything and everyoneapart from Him is false or unreal. In employing the expression the true One John isspeaking of the God who becomes true and real in our experience of Him, with thatwhich is true in Him objectively becoming true in us subjectively and experientially(2:8). The Son of God has given us an understanding so that we may experience, enjoy,and possess the true God as our reality; we know the true One, the divine reality, bybeing in Him to experience and possess Him. We are actually in this reality! In this waythe Triune God who formerly was only objective to us has become our subjective real-ity. To be in the true One is also to be in His Son Jesus Christ, for the Father and theSon are one, and to confess the Son is to have both the Son and the Father. Moreover,Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the embodiment of God; the fullness of the Godheaddwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9), and thus we have been made full in Him (v. 10).

“This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). To whom, or to what, does this refer?Here John is not propounding mere objective truths concerning God, the Son of God, andeternal life; rather, he is identifying the believers’ subjective realization and experience ofthe Triune God. This refers to the God and to the Son of God in whom we are, for weare in the true One and in His Son, who are inseparably one in our spiritual experience.We do not only believe in the true God and know the true God doctrinally; we are in Him,the true One, and in His Son Jesus Christ. Now that we are in Him, we can testify, “Thisis the true God, and this is eternal life.” Of course, if we were not in Him, God withthe Son would remain the true God and eternal life; this is the objective reality of thetranscendent, eternal, and unchanging Triune God. In referring to the objective being ofGod, we might say, “That is the true God and eternal life.” But this is neither John’s pur-pose nor his emphasis here. He wants his spiritual children to have an experiential knowl-edge of the Triune God, an understanding brought to us, the believers, through the com-ing of the Son of God not only to us but especially into us. He is in us, and we are inHim. The One in whom we are is the true God, the True, and He is eternal life. Thisrefers to the indescribable reality of the Triune God in whom we are and who is now thedivine reality and the divine life to us and in us in the life and fellowship with Him.

Abiding in the Triune God through the Teaching of the Anointing

Central to John’s ministry as exhibited in his first Epistle is the matter of the believers’abiding in the Triune God, living in Him continually as their dwelling place. God wants usto dwell in Him (Psa. 90:1), even as He longs to dwell in us (Eph. 2:21-22).13 Knowingthis mutual abiding and experiencing it continuously, John places strong emphasis on it:“If that which you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in theSon and in the Father” (1 John 2:24); “Little children, abide in Him, so that if He ismanifested, we may have boldness and not be put to shame from Him at His coming”(v. 28); “Everyone who abides in Him does not sin” (3:6); “He who keeps His command-ments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by theSpirit whom He gave to us” (v. 24); “In this we know that we abide in Him and He inus, that He has given to us of His Spirit” (4:13); “Whoever confesses that Jesus is theSon of God, God abides in him and he in God” (v. 15); “He who abides in love abides inGod and God abides in him” (v. 16). In his Gospel John reveals not only the life of Godbut also the building of God, the house of God (14:2-3) with its many abodes as His eter-nal corporate expression. The goal of the believers’ experience of the divine life andgrowth in this life is God’s building, His dwelling place. What is unveiled in the Gospel


JOHN WANTS HIS

SPIRITUAL CHILDREN TO

HAVE AN EXPERIENTIAL

KNOWLEDGE OF

THE TRIUNE GOD,AN UNDERSTANDING

BROUGHT TO US,THE BELIEVERS,THROUGH THE COMING

OF THE SON OF GOD

NOT ONLY TO US BUT

ESPECIALLY INTO US.

of John is consummated in the book of Revelation with the holy city, the New Jerusalem,as the eternal mutual abode of the Triune God and His redeemed, regenerated, and glo-rified people. In his first Epistle John points the way to this mutual dwelling place, thatis, our abiding in the Triune God and His abiding in us. This is truly what the church is—the Father’s house, the temple of God, the dwelling place of God in spirit (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15). Sadly, multitudes of believers have been duped, deceived,and misled to wait for an abode in heaven, which the ascended Christ has allegedly beenconstructing for two thousand years. Limited is the number of children of God who seeand experience what John reveals in his Gospel, Epistles, and Revelation—a mutualdwelling place, a spiritual building where we dwell in the Triune God, and He dwells inus. For the building up of this mutual abode, we must learn to abide in Christ.

We may learn to abide through the teaching of the anointing: “As for you, theanointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no

need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things andis true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him” (1 John 2:27). Herewe have a truly tremendous subject that necessitates a full and adequate treatmentelsewhere; at present we can do nothing more than introduce the basic thought,which develops and applies the revelation of mutual dwelling in the Gospel of John.Through His incarnation the Lord Jesus brought divinity into humanity, andthrough His death and resurrection He brought redeemed humanity into divinity.By His going through death and coming in resurrection as mentioned in John 14, theLord Jesus prepared for us an abode in the Father’s house, the church. Now we mayknow that the Son is in the Father, that we are in the Son, and that the Son (with theFather in Him) is in us (v. 20). In the Son we are in God the Father, and in the Sonthe Father is in us. This is the mutual abode. Based on the divine truth in John 14, theLord Jesus charged us to abide in Him, that is, to live and have our being in Him.According to 1 John 2:27, we have within us the moving of the Spirit as the anointing,and this anointing is teaching us one crucial thing—to abide in Christ the Son.

As amazing as it may sound to those unfamiliar with the intrinsic significance of thedivine revelation in 1 John, the anointing that abides in us and that teaches us to abidein Christ is actually the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of reality.Christ is the anointed One for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, and He is also theanointing One, sharing with us, His believers and the members of His Body, the anoint-ing that is upon Him, making us the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12), the great “Me”encountered by Paul when He appeared to him (Acts 9:4). This One, the anointed andthe anointing One, is now the anointing, for He, as the compound Spirit typified by theointment in Exodus 30:22-33, is the anointing moving within us, teaching us to abide inHim. The Son, who abides in the Father and in whom the Father abides, is now in usinstructing us by moving within us to abide in Him even as He abides in the Father.What a profound yet experientially accessible matter this is! John knew the desire ofGod’s heart for a mutual abode, and he lived a life of mutual abiding. Therefore, beingone with the Triune God and writing under the anointing to all believers, he testifies tothe divine birth, the divine fellowship, and the divine reality, culminating in the revela-tion and experience of our living in the Triune God and His living in us.

The more we abide in Him, the more we will live as Christ lives. “He who says he abidesin Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked” (1 John 2:6). “To be in Christ isthe beginning of the Christian life…To abide in Christ is the continuation of the Chris -tian life. This is our responsibility in our daily walk, a walk that is a copy of Christ’s walkon earth” (Lee, Recovery Version, v. 6, note 1). This is to become a reproduction of theresurrected Christ as the firstborn Son of God, who now lives in us so that we may livein Him (Rom. 8:29; Gal. 2:20). Eventually we will become the same as He is in life,nature, and expression—the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy, which is that Hischosen, redeemed, regenerated, and glorified people become the reproduction of the


AS AMAZING AS

IT MAY SOUND,THE ANOINTING

THAT ABIDES IN US

AND THAT TEACHES

US TO ABIDE IN

CHRIST IS ACTUALLY

THE RESURRECTED

CHRIST AS THE

LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT,THE SPIRIT

OF REALITY.

firstborn Son of God for His consummate corporate expression—the New Jerusalem.Assured of this glorious outcome, John could say, “Beloved, now we are children of God,and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that He if is manifested,we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is” (1 John 3:2). Œ

Notes

1In speaking of the Triune God, we must avoid the heresies of tritheism and modalism.Tritheism is the view, rarely promulgated deliberately and explicitly but frequently held unin-tentionally and unconsciously, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, being separate fromone another, are actually three Gods. Although it is correct to say that the three are distinct bothin the Godhead and in the outworking of the divine economy, it is erroneous to assert that Theyare separate and thus three individual Gods. Modalism is the notion that in the eternal being ofGod there are not three divine persons, or hypostases, but that the Father, the Son, and the HolySpirit are merely three temporary and successive manifestations of the one God, who is viewedas a singular monad. The truth is that there is one God, and this unique God is triune; however,the three—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—coexist and coinhere eternally in theGodhead and are not mere ephemeral manifestations of God.

2Along with 7:39, this verse indicates that the Gospel of John not only reveals the three of theTriune God in their eternal coexistence and coinherence but also unveils the consummate Spirit asthe consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God. In the divine economy theconsummated Spirit is the Triune God after He has passed through the process of incarnation,human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This process is a matter involving the economicalTrinity but not the essential Trinity. Because God is immutable, with Him change cannot be essen-tial; it can only be economical. In His economy God has changed in the sense of being processedas indicated above, but although He has changed in His economy, He has not changed—and can-not change—in His essence. Here processed refers to the steps through which the Triune God haspassed in His economy; consummated indicates that the process has been completed; and the con-summated Spirit implies that the Spirit of God has been processed and has become theconsummated Spirit. At the time of John 7:39 the Spirit—the consummated Spirit—was “notyet,” but He now is, and for this reason the New Testament speaks of the Spirit of Jesus (Acts16:7), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), and the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). The Lord Jesuswas glorified when He was resurrected (John 7:39; Luke 24:26), and through this glorification theSpirit of God became the Spirit of the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected Jesus, a compoundof the Triune God, the man Jesus, His human living, His death, and His resurrection. This con-summated Spirit, as the breath of the resurrected Christ, was breathed as the holy breath into thedisciples by the Son in resurrection. The Gospel of John therefore reveals that Christ became fleshto be the Lamb of God, that in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit, and that in His res-urrection He breathed Himself as the consummated Spirit into the disciples (1:1, 14, 29; 20:22).

3The apostle John not only fights against Christological heresies but also writes concerningsin, darkness, death, the devil, deception, the lie, the world, the antichrist, and idols (1:6, 8; 2:15,18, 21-22, 27; 3:4, 7-8, 10, 12-13, 15; 4:1-3, 6; 5:4, 18-19, 21).

4The fact that 1 John emphasizes source is indicated by the frequent use of the Greek prepo-sition ek, which is often translated “out of ” (2:16, 21, 29; 3:8-9, 12, 19; 4:1-2, 4-7, 13; 5:1, 4, 18-19).

5For Clark, light in 1 John 1:5 does not denote God but information. “Light, therefore, is afigure of speech that means information from God” (29). Thus, Clark would say that for believ-ers to walk in the light as God is in the light is to walk in information as God is in information.What a gross misunderstanding of the truth in 1 John!

6Sadly, many theologians, especially Calvinists, being ignorant of the true significance ofregeneration, stridently deny the reality of the divine birth that the apostle John held dearly andsteadfastly defended. This is the situation with Robert Alexander Webb’s The Reformed Doctrineof Adoption (a book endorsed and highly recommended by J. I. Packer), a volume that containsstriking examples of this denial. “Spiritual birth cannot be strictly and literally the same innature and mode with natural birth. It must be a mere analogy, and not an identity” (184-185).


THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

REVEALS THAT CHRIST

BECAME FLESH TO BE

THE LAMB OF GOD,THAT IN RESURRECTION

HE BECAME THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT, AND THAT

IN HIS RESURRECTION

HE BREATHED

HIMSELF AS THE

CONSUMMATED SPIRIT

INTO THE DISCIPLES.

Insisting that spiritual birth (regeneration) does not involve imparting the life and nature of Godinto the believers in Christ, Webb denies the biblical truth, emphasized by John, that believershave actually been born of God to become children of God with the life and nature of God(1 John 5:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:4). For Webb, regeneration is a mere analogy; for God, regeneration isa reality that involves the dispensing of the divine life and nature into the believers. Those whoreceive Christ into them by faith, who believe into His name, have been given the authority tobecome children of God begotten of God (John 1:12-13). Webb and other theologians of his ilkhave no right to regard as analogy what God regards as reality.

“Generation” is defined as that mode of origination of human life wherein the essenceof the begetter is communicated to the begotten; “like begets like;” the nature of the par-ent is imparted to the offspring; the metaphysics of the child is identical with themetaphysics of the father. If this definition be true, then the Christian child, if he betruly begotten, has, in regeneration, the nature and essence of the begetter communi-cated to him, which could mean nothing less than the divinitization of every genuineconvert to Christianity. Is regeneration deification? If like begets like, and God begetshuman children in regeneration, must they not be metaphysically like Him?…

The regenerated child of God is either human or divine. If he continues human, then hewas not really begotten, for like must beget like, and God, the begetter, is not of thesame nature as the child, which is begotten. If he becomes divine in regeneration, thenconversion is the annihilation of identity. (Webb 184)

In response to Webb’s question, we say, yes, regeneration is deification—in the sense of a regen-erated child of God being divine in life and in nature but not in the Godhead nor as an objectof worship. Just as a human child has the life and nature of his human father but not his father’sstatus or fatherhood, so a child of God has the life and nature of God but not the Godhead orthe fatherhood of God. A child of human beings is human because, through generation, he hasthe human life and nature. A child of God is divine because, through regeneration, he has thedivine life and the divine nature. In this limited sense the believers in Christ become divinethrough regeneration. However, we, the believers in Christ, do not cease to be human when weundergo regeneration. On the contrary, we remain human, but now we have the divine life andnature in addition to our human life and nature, and in this way we are divine as well as human.Whereas Webb, posing a false antithesis, says that the “regenerated child of God is either humanor divine,” the truth is that a regenerated child of God is both human and divine. We have beenbegotten of God, yet we remain and maintain our personal identity. Regeneration does not entailthe annihilation of one’s identity as a human being. A child of God is one who has been begot-ten of God to have the life and nature of God. Such a God-begotten child is divine as well ashuman, for he has become a divinely human being—a God-man, a genuine brother of the uniqueGod-man, Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God. His Father is our Father (John 20:17).

7In her commentary on 1 John, Karen H. Jobes observes, “John teaches throughout, but espe-cially in 5:20, that the highest form of knowledge is knowledge of the one true God who has beenrevealed in Jesus Christ…This true knowledge of God in Christ stands in opposition to the manyvoices, views, and religions that offer God-substitutes.” Following this, Jobes quotes C. H.Dodd’s volume on the Johannine Epistles: “That is, idols—in the place of the living God ofChristian revelation…the worship of any God-substitute is idolatry…whether it be a politicalidea, or some fashionable cult, or merely the product of [one’s] own ‘wishful thinking’” (245).

8Seeing this will rescue us from a common error—the supposition that the life spoken ofin 1 John denotes eternal life after death. Commenting on life and knowledge in 5:20, Jobesasserts, “This is the knowledge by which one attains eternal life after death” (245). Such aremark exhibits the darkness John polemically addresses and exposes. The life in 5:20 is the lifein 1:2—the eternal life, which is in the Son and which the Son is.

9Note 4 on 3:24 in the Recovery Version is illuminating:

Thus far in this Epistle the Spirit has not been referred to, though the Spirit isanonymously implied in the anointing in 2:20 and 27. Actually, the Spirit, that is, theall-inclusive compound life-giving Spirit…is the vital and crucial factor of all the


JUST AS A HUMAN

CHILD HAS THE LIFE

AND NATURE OF

HIS HUMAN FATHER

BUT NOT HIS

FATHER’S STATUS OR

FATHERHOOD, SO A

CHILD OF GOD HAS

THE LIFE AND NATURE

OF GOD BUT NOT

THE GODHEAD OR THE

FATHERHOOD OF GOD.

mysteries unveiled in this Epistle: the divine life, the fellowship of the divine life, thedivine anointing, the abiding in the Lord, the divine birth, and the divine seed. It is bythis Spirit that we are born of God, we receive the divine life as the divine seed in us,we have the fellowship of the divine life, we are anointed with the Triune God, and weabide in the Lord…This Spirit and the eternal life (v. 15) are the basic elements by whichwe live the life that abides in the Lord continuously. (Lee)10Reformed theologians disagree with the claim that believing into Christ is the beginning.

Placing what can rightly be called dogmatic insistence on their view of the order of salvation,these theologians assert that faith, the action of believing into the Son of God, follows regener-ation. The opinion is that it is impossible for a spiritually dead sinner to exercise genuine faithand that to claim that one can do this is to embrace some form of Pelagianism and hold that afallen human being possesses at least a latent ability to believe in God. In order to uphold theabsolute sovereignty and grace of God in salvation, Reformed theologians insist that only afterone is regenerated by the Spirit (an event in which a chosen one is viewed as being entirely pas-sive) can he believe and then be justified by grace through faith. There are two errors here. Thefirst error is that it is not regeneration by the Spirit but the sanctification of the Spirit leadingto repentance that enables one to believe (1 Pet. 1:2). The second error, pointed out elsewherein this article, is a gross misunderstanding of regeneration, viewing it not as an actual divine birthbut merely as a restoration, or renewal, of fallen human nature.

11At this juncture a deviant and erroneous concept of regeneration must be exposed and cor-rected. This concept, which is a core idea in Reformed theology, is that regeneration, or the newbirth, is nothing more than an inner re-creating of fallen human nature. Supposedly, because oneis dead in sins, unable to seek God or respond to Him, the Spirit of God renews or re-creates hisfallen human nature, and this renewing, this re-creation, is understood as being equal to what theWord of God means when it speaks of being born again, born anew, born from above, born of theSpirit in the human spirit (John 3:3-6). The truth is this: Regeneration is an actual spiritual birthin which we receive the divine, eternal life, the life of God, in addition to our natural human life.Through regeneration the Spirit of God brings the divine life with the divine nature into thehuman spirit, causing it to be enlivened. Thus, to be begotten of God the Father, regenerated,born again, is to be born of the Spirit in our spirit. Our first birth—the natural birth through ourparents—caused us to obtain human life; our second birth—the spiritual birth through the Spiritof God—causes us to obtain divine life. Through this rebirth God has dispensed His own life, theeternal life, into our spirit. This is regeneration, and this is what it means to be begotten of God.

12The following discussion of this verse relies upon and is deeply indebted to Witness Lee’sLife-study of 1, 2, and 3 John, Jude, pp. 348-356.

13Just as Clark is in error concerning God’s being light, he is in the darkness of error con-cerning the mutual indwelling of the believers and the Triune God: “Now, the New Testamentdoes indeed teach a mutual indwelling of Christ and the believer. There is a very real sense inwhich minds interpenetrate…Christ dwells in us and we in him by our thinking and believinghis doctrines” (120).

Works Cited

Clark, Gordon H. First John: A Commentary. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and ReformedPublishing, n.d. Print.

Hymns. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1985. Print.

Jobes, Karen H. 1, 2, and 3 John. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014. Print.

Lee, Witness. Footnotes. Recovery Version of the Bible. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 2003.Print.

———. Life-study of 1, 2, and 3 John, Jude. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984. Print.

Nee, Watchman. “Obsession and Light.” The Collected Works of Watchman Nee. Vol. 44.Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1993. Print.

Webb. Robert Alexander. The Reformed Doctrine of Adoption. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1947. Print.


REGENERATION IS AN

ACTUAL SPIRITUAL

BIRTH IN WHICH WE

RECEIVE THE DIVINE,ETERNAL LIFE OF GOD,IN ADDITION TO

OUR NATURAL HUMAN

LIFE. THROUGH

REGENERATION THE

SPIRIT BRINGS THE

DIVINE LIFE WITH THE

DIVINE NATURE INTO

THE HUMAN SPIRIT.

by on angasfor our present and eternal abiding in him and delight in the fellowship of the divine...

Documents